_ 138 _ Chapter: 90 After Diogo de Melo and Martim Coelho had left Mozambique, Duarte de Melo arrived there. Vasco Gomes de Abreu had sent him from Sofala, so that he might start to build a fortress in Mozambique, where he would serve as chief-alcalde and factor, under Vasco Gomes jurisdiction, after sending him there, Vasco Gomes left himself, leaving Rui de Brito in his place, as captain of Sofala. Some say that he went to Mozambique to help build the fortress, others that he went to Cape Guardafui in search of booty. Whichever it was, both he and the two captains who accompanied him were lost at sea although where and how nobody knows. The only thing that is certain is that a mast was seen at Quiloa, which seemed to belong to Vasco Gomes’ ship. This news reached Mozambique after the three commanders-in-chief who had spent the winter there left for India. They and their men had completed the fortress tower in Mozambique, which had two storeys, in mid-August they left for India, arriving in Cochin. Here the Viceroy was very pleased to receive them, since he could not leave Cochin before they arrived, and before he found out whether the ships which had sailed from Portugal in the same year were on their way to India. He
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